Sean O’Malley has spoken out against MMA managers on the grounds that they are taking advantage of fighters.
Those comments arrived in the run-up to the star’s big fight against Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight belt at UFC 292 on August 20th, 2023.
Although that may be the case, O’Malley took the time to use his platform in a way to help the next generation of fighters to not get taken advantage of.
And in doing so, he admitted that he had something big coming out to address this problem without revealing too much.
Sean O'Malley on managers in MMA: "they're stealing money from fighters"
Full interview with @SugaSeanMMA: https://t.co/LBrDYMhjMy pic.twitter.com/gNbKVHfF1E
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) August 10, 2023
“I’m waiting to release it the right way. It will be – I think it’ll be a big deal, it’ll be massive, and it will hurt someone’s business and rightfully so.
“So I’m gonna put it out there the right way – I gotta talk to my legal team and make sure we’re doing everything right. But yeah, MMA managers are so bad.
“It’s horrible, it’s embarrassing; they’re stealing money from fighters; they’re taking percentages of these guys’ bonuses. That really p***es me off, to be honest,” O’Malley
The UFC is facing a huge issue with regards to this. The organization has been accused of breaking the Sherman Antitrust Act.
It's official, the Plaintiff’s motion to certify class in the Le v Zuffa (UFC) antitrust case is granted for the bout class and denied for the identity class. The case finally moved forward. pic.twitter.com/5hpKhusvzX
— John S. Nash (@heynottheface) August 9, 2023
In 2014, a lawsuit was filed by former fighters who claimed the UFC had destroyed competition to control how much money a fighter could get.
And given that the courts will hear the case, the UFC may have something to answer for.
Social Media Reaction
He was early on this and I’m with him. Think of the high level fighters who are making $500k a fight – They have to give their manager $50-75k of that (10-15%), on top of paying coaches AND 30-50% in taxes? They’re literally giving away 60-75% of their purse by the end of it.
— Yeti-San MMA (@YetiSanMMA) August 10, 2023
Absolute truth. Manager’s jobs don’t justify 10-20% of the paycheck and most fighters can do their job themselves. They’re mostly useless / scam artists
— OMEGA (@OmegaMMAco) August 10, 2023
Idc how good a manager is….taking 10-20 percent of a fighters purse for doing something they can literally do themselves is ridiculous
— Carlos Francisco Rosado (@HushBulla) August 10, 2023